Yinka Shokunbi / Group Life Editor
For Mrs Franca Onwudinjo the dream of soon becoming of mother when she was heading for the altar with her heartthrob in 1999 and a tender age of 24 was not a figment of her mind.
Mrs Franca and Julia Onwudijo.
“Like every other woman would dream, I was eagerly looking forward to becoming pregnant and nurse my own baby soon after my wedding in 1999, but this did not really happen and by my calculations, it took me a wholesome five years that is, it was only in 2004 that this dream became fulfilled after I went through the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment” said Onwudijo.
Today, Mrs Onwudijo is the proud mother of 10 year old Julian, who incidentally is the first IVF baby to be conceived by one of the foremost fertility clinics in the country, Nordica Fertility Centre, Lagos.
Julian celebrated his tenth birthday on September 14 2014 amidst friends and family members as well as the Nordica family team who gave him fun and entertainment for being the centre’s first assisted fruit of the womb.
Speaking about her experience on the assisted method achieving conception, Mrs Onwudinjo said, “After waiting for about two years, I began to search and check for information on the internet about what could be happening.
“You know when one is looking for the fruit of the womb, one would go anywhere in search of a baby; and so, I was in the office one day when going through the internet, I saw the web site of Nordica and I took the address and went over to discuss available options.
“I was convinced to give the IVF option a try and to God be the glory, my very first time at the process was successful”, said Franca Onwudijo.
Showing off her chubby and handsome boy, Julian, Franca Onwudijo enthused, “he is a normal boy and very intelligent as you can see him so; more so, he is not the first in Nigeria I guess and abroad too, to be conceived through IVF and so do not see any reason why there should be any fuss over why any woman should go through assisted method of conception”.
“As far as I am concerned, Julian is my blood, it was my egg that was taken as well as my husband’s sperm to produce my son. I do not have to hide him or the fact behind his conception.
“People that are hiding such a great thing I think, is as a result of ignorance on what really is the process of assisted delivery and I think it is be better for them to learn more and know other than condemn it”, she noted.
“IVF is simply a procedure of assisting and aiding a woman to to conceive because she is unable to do so the natural way for some reasons and of course in my case, my eggs was used and my husband’s sperm was also used to fertilize the egg that produced Julian”, she averred.
Describing a woman as infertile in today’s modern Medicine according to Dr Abayomi Ajayi, Medical Director of Nordica Fertility Centre, “is only after a thorough examination of possible causes and it is not just the function of the woman but of both man and woman in the union of marriage”.
According to him, “Nigeria belongs to the belt that is called the infertility belt in the world; so it is very common here and at least one in four couples would suffer from infertility. It is rather a common phenomenon” he noted.
Ajayi attributed some of the cause of infertility to both the male and female combination factors and sometimes too, the causes are located in the male or in the female spouses saying, “Whichever way it goes, we would treat infertility in couples wholesomely not excluding a partner”.
“However”, he noted, “infections, and endometriosis are key in treating infertility in women but the singular most important factor would likely be a male factor, from what we have found so far”, observed Ajayi.
He pointed out that the success rate of IVF in Nigeria is same as elsewhere around the world “if the conditions are right with the couples”.
On why many Nigerian couples are still reluctant to seek assistance in Reproductive Health Therapy such as IVF, Ajayi said, “The problem here is that many young couples are not aware of the fact that the earlier they seek help once conception is not achieved within a year the better it is for them.
“A lot of couple would continue to wait whereas if the problem has to do with issues like blocked tubes or bad sperm among others, there is no alternative treatment than IVF unless such couple would have to adopt a child”, he said.
However, only about ten to fifteen per cent of couples with infertility challenges would need IVF from research finding and as such it is becoming a welcoming option among Nigerians today; and as such some health insurance providers are already keying into it to give couples up to three cycles of options.
Over three thousand babies are born through In Vitro Fertilisation in Nigeria every year and over five million globally.
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